Cathederal, lunch, and picasso

What a day...or rather, What a night...which ran into day! Last night we learned that when Barcelona throws a concert, it doesn't start a 8 and run until 11. It starts at 10:00 p.m. And runs until 5:00 a.m. We called the front Desk at 4:00 a.m. Only to be told, with a sigh, that it would not be over for another hour. We moved rooms this morning, to the other side of the hotel. We are hoping that the music festival(which runs through tomorrow night,by the way) will not affect us on this side...when we are wearing ear plugs....and have had a lot of red wine to drink.


Today we did the green and blue lines of the bus turistica, which took us to the Barri Gotic (the old city) so we could see Santa Maria del Mar (Our lady of the Sea) church, started in the 13th century and finished in the 15th. I loved it, very plain but gorgeous stained glass and tiny chapels all around the main altar, dedicated to various saints.


From there, we went to the Museu Picasso, which was really beautiful. It's in the Ribera district, in a very, very old building and has paintings from all of his career, starting as a young boy in Spain. I prefer his early work, as does Bill and we enjoyed seeing all of it in such a historic building.
Another Gaudi building sighted - he was so ahead of his time that Salvador Dali studied his work.

After a full morning we decided to stop for lunch at a spot close by. It's always interesting being in a foreign country. We make so many assumptions and are so often surprised! What I read on the menu, is not at all what I expected for lunch, “Eggs, with potatoes, green chile and local sausage.” I got a beautiful, small baguette, with fresh tomato and olive oil spread on the bread, and an omelet of egg, potato,sausage and green chile. It was good, just not what I expected. Our lovely waitress was Japanese, probably a student (Barcelona has four Universities) and spoke Japanese and Spanish (also some English because she said, “Okay” when we pointed at something). I wished our daughter and her family were with us, because I would have ordered the liter of Sangria!


Then we noticed a lovely store with ornate masks of every description and bill got a good pix. See who else is in pix!


On to the Cathedral of Barcelona, built in the 14th century and dedicated to St. Eulalia, a martyr. No, I don't know why or how she was martyred, though I am sure she's one of the 1400 saints whose deaths I was forced to memorize in the 8th grade. She is buried in the church crypt. There are 29 chapels surrounding this church and there is a life-size figure of Christ, carried into the tick of a naval battle aboard the royal Spanish flagship.

We road the blue line of the Bus Turistic all around Barcelona today (road the red line yesterday) and went through Montjuc park, olympic area, Port Vell, Barcelonetta and back to our hotel. Another George Bush banner appeared and this time I have photographed it closer so that someone can tell me what it means!
When we got off the bus,a block away, I pointed out to Bill that an elderly couple I had seen at breakfast at our hotel got off right behind us. They had to be in their 80s and were amazingly spry. We had the good fortune to be at the concierge “snack and bar area” at they same time they were there and they sat next to us. He served under General MacArthur during the war as a naturalized American citizen and they have been married for 67 years. MacArthur told him he only thought of the families of his men, before deciding if he would put them into battle.
He is still working, every day in San Francisco, as a landscape architect, with an international clientèle. They were funny and so interesting,and we spent a long time with them tonight, laughing and telling stories. They wanted us to go with them to Montserrat tomorrow, but we already have plans for our last day here before we take the the train to Sitges on Sunday. We are hoping to see them at Breakfast tomorrow,and they will no doubt beat us down there. Bear in mind that they flew from San Francisco to Berlin (so he could do some work there) and then here, and on the 3rd they will fly to Majorca for a few days and then to Zürich, “for as long as the money holds out,” Ernst said. I admire them so and hope that we are able to travel when we are that age.
We miss you all, but we are having a good time and will post more...as we go along.